Summer's Over Already? Why Life Accelerates as We Age

As boomers who grew up during the 1960s and 3970s we can vividly recall school emptying each year to the sounds of Alice Cooper39s quotSchool39s Outquot giving way to the lazy carefree days of summer Days felt like weeks and weeks felt like months almost as if we were living our own version of Hollywood39s Endless SummerWhile I was enjoying a seemingly eternal existence I can remember my father complaining that there weren39t enough hours in the day to get everything done Naturally I had a youthful disregard for what he was saying back then Today I can appreciate his outlook that life accelerates with age Now that I39m in his shoes summer feels more like a rushed span of mere weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day remembered more for the things we regret not doing rather than for the things we didThere are many explanations as to why life seems to accelerate as we age the most popular being mathematical ie the more days you have lived the less each new day represents as a percentage of your total life While this is certainly a plausible explanation the reality is that we lack a scientific explanation for the feeling of the acceleration of life we just don39t know enough about how humans assess time given that there is no one area of the brain dedicated to time perception Nonetheless as it becomes ever more obvious that life accelerates with age and that there39s little that can be done to slow it down how are boomers responding and what can marketers do to helpRethinking Carpe DiemWe39re all familiar with this Latin aphorism that urges us to seize the day When boomers were younger raising families and managing careers seizing the day usually meant emerging victoriously in some important daily endeavor Now that they39re older and each day is gone in a flash carpe diem has new meaning If something that you want is speeding by why not reach out and grab hold of itMany boomers are thinking differently about how to live each day beginning with a concerted effort to wrest back control With a sense of control comes a higher degree of emotional preparedness that allows those boomers to set the bar higher than yesterday Seizing the day is still about accomplishment but now it39s less about daily victories and more about doing things that are meaningful and therefore lasting and memorable In the end memories persevere longer than the moments doShifting Fast Days to Full DaysAs each day seems shorter boomers are responding in the only way they know how They39re putting more into every day to get more out of life Ever wonder why older people get up so early in the morning They39ll tell you it39s because they can39t sleep but the more plausible explanation is their desire to start earlier and get more done sooner As people look to age successfully personal productivity has become an important measure of vitality amp8212 the busier the better And while busy is good balance is even better as being too busy tends to create blurMarketers would be wise to focus on products and services that enhance personal productivity not as a means of offsetting issues associated with age but to help people get more done and decrease the perception that there39s less time to get things doneCalculating the New Math of Aging As boomers begin to realize that their quantity of life remaining is decreasing they offset it with a corresponding increase in their quality of life In this case they act as if quality is greater than quantity When they tell you that they39re living the best years of their life right here and now they39re ignoring quantity of remaining life in favor of their present quality of lifeIrrational or not this new math suggests that each day of life at age is worth more than those lived earlier and therefore the experience of life is actually increasing rather than decreasing When the physics of aging life accelerates meets the math of aging life improves and thus its quality increases with age everything sort of balances outJust when you think you understand boomers you don39t They continue to invent new ways of rationalizing the realities of aging to create a more positive scenario that fits their optimistic outlook for the future Marketers need to understand the reality but emphasize the aspiration problems don39t matter when positivity is imperativeCreating More Than an Endless SummerAs the sun swiftly sets on yet another summer boomers are hurtling towards what39s next The realization that life seems to be accelerating is concerning but ultimately it39s just another challenge of aging that boomers need to overcome amp8212 and that marketers can harness as an opportunity to help their customers of ageBoomers39 ambition is to slow down the speed of life without slowing down Slowing down is what previous generations might have done while retiring but many boomers believe that the moment you hit the brakes is when you start getting old So perhaps an accelerating life is a good thing after all as it39s prompting a newfound zeal for full active and productive lives at age Many younger boomers are still content to live that Endless Summer while many aging boomers want more An endless life isn39t really possible but it sure is more pleasant to pretend that it is Let39s go for itPhoto courtesy of BoomAgersClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Summer's Over Already? Why Life Accelerates as We Age

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Peter Hubbell

Breaking Barriers: Nada Bradbury’s AD-ID Strategy for Advertising Effectiveness and Women in Tech - By E.B. Moss

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Summer's Over Already? Why Life Accelerates as We Age

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Peter Hubbell

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